opinion

Dwane Powell: The monstrous mastopus has a hand in everything

bwheeler — Fri, 17 May 2013 15:40:03 -0400

The N&O’s former cartoonist just couldn’t sit out this legislative session, not with all the fun things to draw. He’ll be offering his view every Sunday in The N&O during the session. Here’s this week’s cartoon.

Ending discrimination against North Carolina wood

bwheeler — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:35:17 -0400

On Monday, a legislative committee is supposed to act on House Bill 628, Protect/Promote NC Lumber, which mandates that state government construction projects adopt a building code that treats timber equally, which would put more North Carolina timber to use in the state. Former Lt. Gov. Bob Jordan write about that means in a piece we received too late to print before Monday.

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By Bob Jordan
President, Jordan Lumber Company

North Carolina’s forest products industry is the state’s top manufacturing industry, contributing billions of dollars to our state’s economy through the growing, selling and harvesting of trees for the purpose of manufacturing countless forest products. This industry provides jobs in every county of our great state.

As president of Jordan Lumber Company and a former North Carolina lieutenant governor, I understand and appreciate how public policy and private business impact each other on a day-to-day basis. Environmental public policy should be promoted and established that will encourage the sustainability of our forests, not discourage it.

Unfortunately, the LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design) building code that currently guides our state’s “green building” initiative does just that. It discriminates against North Carolina forests. Developed in Washington in 1994, the LEED building code only awards green credits to wood that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Since FSC recognizes less than 100,000 acres of our state forests, this policy undoubtedly provides incentives for the use of wood from outside of our state for any public building projects.

Recently, Lampe & Malphrus Lumber Company, which is in Smithfield and sells SFI-certified Southern pine lumber, was denied the opportunity to sell lumber to a construction project for Tryon Palace, our first colonial and state capital building. The wood used for the deck project was imported. It’s a shame that a flawed code can hurt a North Carolina business and prohibit locally grown timber from being used in such a special historical site such as Tryon Palace.

The good news is that there is a solution. There are other sustainable forest certification programs such as the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) that are popular with North Carolina forest
landowners. These certification programs have over 1.2 million acres of forests enrolled in their programs in our state.

House Bill 628, Protect/Promote NC Lumber, has been introduced in the N.C. General Assembly. It mandates that state government construction projects adopt a building code that treats ATFS, SFI and FSC timber equally. This long overdue measure provides a fair opportunity for North Carolina’s private, non-industrial forest landowners and the forest products industry in our state to participate in our state’s growth and restoration efforts.

The goal of LEED remains desirable – increasing the amount of sustainable materials in our offices, schools and homes – but the best method to accomplish this is through a fair and competitive process that does not pick winners and losers based on one forest certification program.

When the process is open and equal to all forest certification systems, all North Carolinians will benefit.

Dwane Powell: All aboard the GOP tax-reform tub

bwheeler — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:24:54 -0400

Letters to the Editor: GOP, Medicare, etiquette, same-sex marriage, abortions, jobs, cursive writing and guns

samnewkirk — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:47:47 -0400

These letters got overrun by other issues and did not make the paper.

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The GOP pledge

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under the Koch Brothers, the NRA and moneyed lobbyists, with liberty and justice for some!

Vince Bankoski
Cary
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Keep Medicare affordable

The agency that handles Medicare has proposed to cut the Medicare Advantage budget yet again, and we need our representatives in Congress to intervene. Any cuts to Medicare Advantage will hurt seniors who are having a hard enough time as it is just trying to survive.

I’m on a Medicare Advantage plan, with Blue Cross Blue Shield along with Humana to cover my prescriptions. My medication costs have been reasonable. BCBS covers vision, which is a necessity for me because of my glaucoma treatments. Living on a fixed income, I don’t know how I’ll pay more for medications or co pays. I also don’t know what I’ll do as more providers drop out of the Medicare Advantage, which is becoming the norm and will probably get even worse with further cuts to the program.

Seniors need help from Congress to keep our healthcare affordable. Our representatives in Washington must let the agency that handles Medicare know that these additional cuts cannot happen.

Mary Coats
Franklinton
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Politeness counts

I am an old lady, but I do use a few of the “new contraptions.” I’m not sure we need to redefine etiquette in the digital era. Being polite is a basic trait of humans that lifts us up a little above other species. It can ease relations, make life a little more bearable at times and nourish a gentleness among us that is sometimes missing.

Often, I find this trait missing among people who find their interaction with digital equipment more important than human interaction. May I quote Einstein: “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

Sherry Hannen
Lake Gaston
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Trust intuition

With regard to the May 4 front-page article “Businesswoman sentenced for fraud” about Carolyn Grant’s financial schemes and prison sentencing for fraud, I could have been a victim of her fraud.

I met her for coffee one morning several years ago, and as she did her spiel, the wisdom of an old saying I’ve heard all my life crossed my mind: If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

Needless to say, I have no regrets for trusting my intuition that day.

Susan Longiotti
Chapel Hill
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Consistency on rights

We totally agree with our fellow citizens who wrote in support of same-sex marriage (“Kudos for Hagan,” April 8), except for one important point: Experiencing joy and love are God-given rights that all God’s creatures automatically enjoy and that cannot be bestowed upon, nor taken away by, any individual, group or state legislature (and their religious toadies) in the earthly realm no matter how hard they try.

What is key here is equal treatment under the law, which is what all Americans are entitled to. Having said that, there is another important entitlement that those in the earthly realm have responsibility for: that of providing a safe environment for all citizens through limiting the availability and purchase of hand-held weapons of mass destruction and their accompanying high-capacity clips and magazines.

Let us all hope and pray that Sen. Kay Hagan and others will be as consistent in their support of gun control legislation.

Maria and Cliff Marshall
Durham
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Abortion access

As a North Carolina OB-GYN, I am in complete agreement with Suzanne Buckley (“NC lawmakers on a mission to ban abortions,” April 17 Point of View).

Both HB 716 and SB 308 unnecessarily single out abortion providers for particular legislation of how they provide care to patients. Abortion is one of the most commonly performed medical procedures in the United States and has rates of complication far lower than other procedures done in the outpatient setting.

SB 308, which would require physicians performing abortions to have hospital admitting privileges and dictate other aspects of care, will do nothing to make abortion safer – abortion is already safe. The only effect will be to make providing abortions more difficult for physicians and therefore make abortion care less accessible and less safe.

The bills’ authors invoke concern for women’s health as their motivation in proposing these laws. This is laughably disingenuous. North Carolina women already struggle to get adequate reproductive health care. I know this because I care for them every day. The only real effect of these laws will be to harm women by restricting their access to a safe, legal medical procedure.

Rebecca Mercier, M.D.
Carrboro
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There are job openings

Are there jobs out there? Not according to Paul Krugman (“The trap of the tainted jobless” April 23). We need spending dad-gummit! And we need it now. Government “make-work” jobs? What does he propose to do with more spending? A rebirth of the 1930s WPA and CCC?

Yet when I ride up and down the roads I see signs advertising “help wanted.” It may not be the jobs that Krugman prefers, many such signs are for truck-driving positions. I know, I know. The people he is writing about are overqualified for such jobs. That’s a term that gets tossed around a lot, “overqualified.” But are they really overqualified if their skills don’t match up to the available jobs?

There are also jobs in other areas of the country. Sometimes people have to move to find employment. N.C. has a high rate of unemployment. That’s not true in most of the country, where hiring is more robust. Some places can’t find workers, believe it or not.

Robert Peele
Rocky Mount
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Out with bad

It’s apparent why North Carolinians didn’t give the reins of government to the Republicans for a century and a half. The laundry list of bad, unconstitutional, bigoted and intrusive legislation that emanates from Raleigh is well known by now.

Even worse is that these robotic Republicans can’t even come up with their own bad ideas; they have to depend on ALEC to supply them with legislation that serves anyone but the people of North Carolina.

The Republicans have had their chance to establish themselves as a viable, responsive party. Instead, uncompromising ideology is what we got.

In November of next year, we the people will have our say, and I fully expect that North Carolinians of all political stripes will recognize that our current legislators have no regard for us and will throw these bums out.

M. David Preston
Hillsborough
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Writing still important

Regarding “Cursive is so yesterday” (April 30): I personally hope it is for “yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

When I was in school, this class was called “Penmanship,” and I seem to recall that it was a short class, requiring not too much effort. I never heard my daughter complain about her class in penmanship and never have I heard a word about anyone getting “writer’s cramp.”

I don’t remember any complaints from anyone I knew or my brothers, who were all athletic and had a hard time sitting still. Also, in our affluent society today, there are still a lot of people who can’t afford the cost, service and upkeep of a computer.

Betty Sanders
Morrisville
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Trigger tragedies

The April 11 letter “Tragedy averted” posed a question directed at those who say “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The letter-writer asked what would have happened during the recent Texas incident in which 14 people were injured during a mass stabbing if a gun were used. He went on to say there would probably be 14 people dead instead of injured.

What he fails to realize is that a person would have pulled the trigger if a gun were used. Triggers do not pull themselves. Guns do not kill people. People kill people.

Anthony Socha
Durham

4 NC lawmakers explain support for school voucher bill

bwheeler — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:00:00 -0400

We have a rule against publishing Points of View submissions from elected officials, so you won't find this in the paper. But here's a look at the reasons four lawmakers – two Democrats and two Republicans – sponsored House Bill 944 or the Opportunity Scholarship Act.

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By Reps. Marcus Brandon, Ed Hanes, Rob Bryan and Brian Brown

While standing on the stage of the Greensboro War Memorial Auditorium recently, we saw firsthand the demand from thousands of parents, students and community leaders to help low-income and working-class children access the academic help they need.

So when we hear from critics that we should either stop or slow down our plan to help these families who are hanging in the balance, we immediately think of the nearly 3,000 people who were before us and the even larger group they represent across our state. Sadly, we have hundreds of thousands low-income and working-class children who failed state tests last year because a “one size fits all” educational model did not meet their academic needs. This is unacceptable.

Though three of us represent urban districts and the other a rural county, all of us see similar numbers regarding the academic performance of our children. In each of our counties, only about half of poor children passed end-of-grade tests last year compared with over 80 percent of their wealthier peers, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.

If each child has a constitutional right to a sound, basic education, then our poorest kids are surely on the short end of the stick. This crisis is no longer something we can simply talk about – something must be done.

That is why we, a bipartisan group of lawmakers, are the primary sponsors of House Bill 944 (Opportunity Scholarship Act). This measure will allow the families of low-income and working-class children to better afford schools that can meet their academic needs. We know that the lower a child is on the socioeconomic scale, the less access he has to vital resources and the more susceptible she is to society’s ills such as incarceration and dropping out of school. For these reasons, we are sponsoring House Bill 944: because we are elected officials committed to the well-being of every one of
our constituents, especially those most at-risk.

We support House Bill 944 because programs allowing private school choice for low-income and working-class children have proven successful. Independent studies show that Florida’s program has led to increased test scores for scholarship recipients and public school students while saving taxpayers over $98 million since 2001.

We know that House Bill 944 is still a work in progress, but we are all committed to ensuring that we have good accountability standards: Academic progress of scholarship students will be reported annually and participating private schools will have mandated financial audits based upon the amount of scholarship funding they receive. And most importantly, we seek to empower parents to be the ultimate authority on accountability when it comes to their child’s education.

At the end of the day, we want all children to have the best resources to succeed, and that’s the true bipartisan spirit behind House Bill 944. We simply want to provide low-income parents an option with the hope of finding a better educational environment that can best meet their child’s academic needs.

Our ears are not deaf to the challenges faced by our traditional public schools, and we will never relent in working to find ways to help public schools. However, as legislators, we have a responsibility to uphold our state’s constitutional promise to provide a quality education to all our students.
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Rep. Marcus Brandon is a Democrat who represents House District 60 in Guilford County, Rep. Ed Hanes is a Democrat who represents House District 72 in Forsyth County, Rep. Rob Bryan is a Republican who represents House District 88 in Mecklenburg County and Brian Brown is a Republican who represents House District 9 in Pitt County.

One mom's take: This Mother's Day, let's stop selling out the next generation

bwheeler — Thu, 09 May 2013 16:52:14 -0400

Gotten a bzillion Point of View submissions this week. Here's a Mother's Day piece from a Goldsboro mom offering her view of what's wrong with this country. Deborah Nowachek, the wife of an ob-gyn, retired from her 15-year career as an attorney-mediator to adopt, stay at home and homeschool her two children.

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By Deborah Nowachek

As Mother’s Day approaches, I am reminded that "first and last, the home is the bastion of the nation, as the home is, so is the homeland." If John Phillips is correct in his assessment that our homes are the stronghold of our nation, we are just about to lose our grip.

Why are the sociologists and social workers who are supposed to be studying our nation mute on the issue of needing homes in which children can grow and thrive and learn to be productive, moral, law abiding, contributing, interdependent members of society? Perhaps they are too afraid to confront the overwhelming flood of political correctness that is infecting the ability of our society to critically evaluate the home, and most other things as well.

My mother was told by Helen Gurley Brown and Aretha Franklin that to gain R-E-S-P-E-C-T she had to work outside the home. Those values were instilled in my generation by our stay-at-home mothers. But did anyone look at the lives those women lived?

I admit that it was easier in my former work-life to wrestle an insurance adjuster or a demanding attorney than it is to potty-train a toddler. But at the end of the day, that is because I have nothing invested in the adjuster and the lawyer, but the future lies in that toddler of mine who through my investment can now grow and become a strong competent adult. Motherhood is truly about that difficult word, S-A-C-R-I-F-I-C-E.

We are selling out the next generation because mothers fear that staying at home is not as "fulfilling" or "important" as the office. Sure, changing a baby seven times a day doesn’t sound like a party, but motherhood is a long-term job with lifetime benefits. There is no greater day when you teach your child to walk, or read, or ride a bike for the first time. Motherhood requires personal sacrifice to better the next generation. Why would anyone willingly settle for the minimum-wage hired-hand child-sitter so we can have the money to hyperstimulate our children with every "tech-box" device our minds can tweet and twitter?

We have traded lovingly made nutritious home-cooked dinners with Mom, Dad and the kids for a few "thumbing" people in the car drive-thru or at a table checking their email, listening to their music, playing their games, or tweeting someone in Timbuktu we just cannot live without as a "Friend." What about our children? They can be the greatest friends we will ever have, but only if we make the personal sacrifice of an investment of our time.

As a stay-at-home home-schooling mother of two young children, I have seen the vast change in my community over the last 23 years. Strong, grounded two-parent families who desired to be parents and longed to have a family are being replaced. Restaurants are rampant. Obscene billboards flank Highway 70 that surely mothers would never allow their young boys to view. Everyone will take your child for afterschool or summer care – even the bowling alley and karate "academy." Since when has karate become an institution of higher learning? Why should we take care of our offspring when we can just pay someone to do it for us?

Look at the results. Although there are exceptions to every rule, the children I see at the grocery store, the park and the library lack the ability to converse, control their behavior and interact appropriately with peers and adults and are so love-starved that they act-out to get negative attention for it is better than the lack of attention they have had all day. They are exhausted, malnourished and lacking in social graces. Why? Because the minimum-wage hired-hand does not have the capacity to provide the one-on-one care God designed for a father and mother. Then, Father and Mother are too tired from their daily salt-mines to spend the necessary time nurturing their offspring. Without mothers at home, our nation is destined to fail.

I saw an ad the other day that smacked of the irony of our times. It was for a one-day Lamaze Class for expectant parents who were too busy to attend the traditional six-week Lamaze Course. Yes, too busy to attend the Lamaze Course because life will definitely get less busy after the baby is born. This couples well with the new health initiative requiring a delivering mother to have skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth to "improve bonding." Someone must have forgotten that in six weeks, this mother will send the baby to 12 hours of day care with the minimum-wage hired-hand for six years and the school system for the next 12. Can those few seconds truly have any effect over the next 18 years?

We have to wake up as a community and a nation realizing that parking Little Suzy in front of the TV or with a hired hand is not going to improve her. It may satiate our conscience if we buy her a personal computer or listening device, but no app can provide her with a loving, caring, nurturing home.

We have to be parents. After all, that is why we have children, something our nation has forgotten. We are parents to have an impact on the nation through our own personal piece of the next generation. We must be willing to sacrifice of our "self." It is not for dummies or wimps; it is a full-time job for a mother.

So here is an idea: This Mother’s Day maybe you would like to apply for the job of truly caring, loving and providing an intellectually, socially and spiritually stimulating life for your offspring so that our nation can again be the penultimate homeland on earth. Let us build our bastion together in the next generation. Motherhood elevates women to a full-time lifetime career as CEO of the home with a benefit package that is priceless. I’m in. How about you?

New York Times says Mel Watt a good choice to lead housing finance agency

bwheeler — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:26:51 -0400

The New York Times in an editorial today endorsed President Obama's choice of North Carolina's Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Here's what the Times had to say:

There are many reasons to be bullish on housing. Valuations, affordability and supply and demand are moving in the right direction. But there are also causes for concern. Home sales and home prices can rise only so far given today’s high level of unemployment and low level of wage gains. And millions of homeowners are still in financial distress. At the end of 2012, some 11.3 million homeowners – nearly one-fourth of all those with a mortgage – still owed more on their mortgages than their homes were worth, according to Moody’s Analytics. Of those, 3 million are in or near foreclosure.

Against that backdrop, President Barack Obama has nominated Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., to be the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the overseer of the government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, Watt has long been a champion of homeownership and credit availability. Before credit standards were abandoned in the lending of the bubble years, careful efforts by Watt and other policymakers had prudently expanded homeownership to middle- and low-income families, without the negative consequences of the subprime era. Reviving those successful efforts, while averting the dangers, should be a priority for the next director of the agency.

As a representative from North Carolina, whose district includes parts of Charlotte, the home of Bank of America, Watt is also aware of the needs and demands of banks. He has been criticized for taking campaign donations from the financial industry, though, sadly, it is hard to find a politician who doesn’t accept special-interest money. But Watt has shown a willingness to act in the public interest – and to compromise skillfully across the aisle. During debates over the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill in 2010, he was instrumental in passing core mortgage reforms, including rules to improve and enforce underwriting standards to protect borrowers and the public from reckless lending.

The question, of course, is whether Watt can be confirmed in a Senate where Republicans block nominees for the sake of doing so. For some time, many Republicans have insisted that the most important housing issue is the privatization of Fannie and Freddie, which have been under government control since their bailout in 2008.

The debate over the future of Fannie and Freddie is legitimate, but premature. Fannie and Freddie and other federal agencies guarantee about 90 percent of new mortgages. Banks and other private sector lenders are simply in no position to fill that role anytime soon.

A confirmation hearing should focus on the real, near-term priorities for Fannie and Freddie, especially the need to ensure the flow of ample mortgage credit and to provide relief to hard-pressed borrowers.

The acting director, Edward DeMarco, has been slow to clarify mortgage issues that impair the banks’ willingness to extend credit. He has also stood in the way of principal reductions for underwater borrowers, saying that writing off principal would be against the taxpayer interest. Watt’s record indicates that he would take a smarter, more forceful approach to mortgage relief. Research by the Congressional Budget Office confirms that principal write-downs would save the government money and reduce foreclosure and delinquency rates.

Watt has what it takes to explain and carry out policies to help revive credit and provide long overdue assistance to homeowners – if only the Senate will give him the chance.

Letters to the Editor: NRA, legislation, Kay Hagan, gerrymandering and cameras at arenas

samnewkirk — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:07:53 -0400

These letters got overrun by other issues and did not make the paper.

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Railroaded

In trying to process how our U.S. Senate would defeat a law that 90 percent of voters favored, I am sickened. The senators must totally disrespect the populace and think we will not remember that they caved in to the NRA when they run for re-election.

Sen. Richard Burr, responding to an appeal to him to vote for the gun proposals including the extended background checks, stated that he was afraid this would be a “knee-jerk reaction that would only give Americans a false sense of security about public safety.” Unbelievable!

I do not think most of the proponents saw this as the answer to gun violence in our country. But it would have been a step in the right direction. It would have given us some hope that our government is listening to us. Instead, we once again see our U.S. Senate allowing special interest, in this case the NRA, to railroad our democracy.

Susie Cuthrell
Beaufort
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Leaders finally act

Surprise! House Speaker Thom Tillis was finally embarrassed enough by an action of his political cronies in the House to pull a resolution from consideration.

One might hope that Sen. Phil Berger and Art Pope might experience a similar moment of embarrassment with regard to some of their noxious notions and stances.

I yearn for the return of real, substantial leadership that we have had in the past with such leaders as Jim Holshouser, Jim Martin, Jim Hunt and Marc Blasnight. Perhaps that is too much to expect in this present political climate within our great state.

James R. Horton
Williamston
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Hagan’s courage

In reference to the April 10 letter “Hagan’s betrayal”: I strongly disagree with the writer and offer my congratulations to Sen. Kay Hagan for having the political integrity to stand up for the rights of the people of this state and this country. No, it is not Hagan’s betrayal, but Hagan’s courage.

North Carolina and the United States of America were founded on the principles of personal freedom. The passing of this amendment was a step backward and showed that personal freedom in North Carolina is valid only when it aligns with the religious morals of some of its residents. The weight of perfidy, if it lies on anyone’s shoulders, lies on the residents of this state and its elected representatives who wish to trample on constitutionally guaranteed personal freedom in a quest to impose their own religious morals on all its citizens.

Again, I say congratulations to Hagan for having the moral courage and political integrity to do what is right.

David Hurley
Holly Springs
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Gerrymander math

Gerrymandered voting districts typically have one thing in common; they come in weird, skewed shapes. Placing controls on the configuration of voting districts will go a long way toward minimizing gerrymandering.

If this state legislature wants to prevent future gerrymandering, after they perfected the process, then they should require that a mathematical equation be applied to the configuration of every voting district. The equation is this: The value of the square of the perimeter of the district divided by the area of the district must be less than 30. Or in math terms: (PXP/A) < 30.

The selection of the number “30” is subjective. If the number is lower, then the configuration of the voting district would tend more to be the shape of a square or circle. If the number is larger, then a more skewed voting district would be allowed. For example, if the number is 16, then the voting district configuration would be a square. If the number is 30, then the voting district shape could be similar to a rectangle with one side five times longer than the other.

Applying district shape constraints is an important step toward ensuring fairness in the redistricting process.

Bill Jensen
Apex
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Cameras key

I agree with Andrew Branch’s standpoint in his April 12 column “PNC: My e-reader is not a tablet.” Arenas should check the tablet/e-reader for a camera, and if it doesn’t have one then let it through. It would be as simple as that. They wouldn’t have to create guidelines to tell whether it is an e-reader or a tablet. iPads would be immediately be banned except for the original one, which had no camera.

Kindle e-readers would be completely fine, but the Kindle tablets that have cameras would be in trouble. Other tablets and e-readers would be subject to the exact same rule.

PNC Arena needs to rethink its ban on all tablets and cater to those who have the e-readers for important reasons.

Sam Teague
Chapel Hill
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Put America first

I feel sorry for the terrible fighting that the people in Syria are enduring. I feel sorry for all the problems in Egypt. All over the world it seems countries have their hands out for American money, not friendship. We as Americans give and give, but now our pockets are empty. Yet we had John Kerry running all over the Mideast giving out $200 million here, $300 million there. Who gave him a bottomless checkbook?

The people I feel sorry for the most are the ones in this country, those who are losing their jobs, forced to take pay cuts while our leaders keep giving borrowed money to other countries. It’s time to shut off the drinking fountain. Spend our money here on Americans. Let other countries defend themselves and pay for their own survival.

It’s time to bring all of our troops home and save that money to pay off the national debt. We need to save teachers, create jobs and put Americans to work first. We need every dime we can save to spend on Americans.

Jim Wiegand
Fuquay-Varina

Dwane Powell: GOP high on national right-wing policies

bwheeler — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:34:57 -0400

Gov. Pat McCrory: Time for offshore drilling and an 'unconventional' approach to Medicaid

bwheeler — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:33:38 -0400

Under the provided headline "More Federal Cooperation Is Needed To Unleash North Carolina’s Economy," Gov. Pat McCrory offers these thoughts before he heads to Houston on Monday for a governors' Outer-Continental Shelf meeting.

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By Gov. Pat McCrory

To get North Carolina moving forward again, our administration is concentrating on reforms in three fundamental areas: the economy, education and efficiency. We’re making great progress on some complex long-term problems, but on two critical issues – health care and energy – we’re going to need the federal government’s cooperation.

On Monday, I will participate in a panel of Outer-Continental Shelf governors on the need to expand offshore energy exploration. In February during a White House visit, I asked President Obama directly to expand offshore leasing off the coasts of North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina. He told me the issue is being reviewed.

The time for delay is over. It’s time to get off the sidelines and allow the states to exert the leadership that will create thousands of jobs, reduce America’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil and protect the environment. The federal government must form a more cooperative partnership with the states so that more Americans – especially North Carolinians - can get back on the payroll.

There are estimates that opening up the Atlantic shores to energy exploration could create up to 140,000 new jobs during the next 20 years. These are good-paying jobs that will allow families to save and build an economic future.

There’s real-world evidence of energy’s economic contributions as well. North Dakota enjoys the nation’s lowest unemployment rate at 3.3 percent (March 2013). Much of North Dakota’s economic success can be attributed to investments made in energy exploration on private and state lands. Growth has been so robust that energy production has surpassed agriculture as the state’s largest economic sector.

Offshore energy exploration would also provide significant returns to the public sector. Under a bipartisan plan recently introduced in the U.S. Senate, North Carolina would receive at least 27.5 percent of royalties and other energy revenue from lease sales off our coast. An additional 10 percent could be earned by making land-side investments in conservation and renewable energy projects. North Carolina could use the money. We have a long list of needs. Energy revenue could be used for additional investments in education, transportation and health care.

Federal cooperation is vital on another issue that deeply affects North Carolina – Medicaid.

Last week, we received news that Medicaid budget overruns from Gov. Bev Perdue’s administration will total $248 million, twice what was originally expected. The unpredictability of Medicaid costs and its adverse impact on the entire state budget is reason alone for reform.

However, budgetary concerns are not the prime reason we’re overhauling North Carolina’s Medicaid program. We’re pursuing reform so we can take better care of our fellow citizens. Our plan centers on the patient’s well-being, not just physical needs. We would like to provide mental health and substance abuse coverage. Our plan also calls for coordination with social service providers so that nonmedical needs that contribute to the patient’s healing process can be delivered. Our reform goals are simple. We want to do everything we can to get the Medicaid patient healthy sooner and provide him with avenues that will lead to a long-term, healthier life.

To implement this holistic approach, we’ll need a waiver from Washington. I hope the president approves this unconventional approach so we can take care of our Medicaid patients in a caring, comprehensive manner while at the same time reducing costs to the taxpayer.

Medicaid reform and energy are just two issues where the federal government needs to join North Carolina in solving problems that affect people’s everyday lives. I hope the president adopts our view that government must be a partner - not an adversary - to progress.

By working together, we can get North Carolina and the nation back on the right track by simply unleashing the unlimited potential of our people.

This formula has worked before. I guarantee it will work again.

Fun ways to free an NC bill stuck in a committee

bwheeler — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:28:51 -0400

Charlotte Observer editorial page editor Taylor Batten had a blog post this week on the interesting way some bills are moving through committees:

Need to get a bill out of committee but don't have the votes? Not a problem! Simply follow N.C. Republicans' razzle-dazzle system for getting around those nitpickers who think the majority rules.

A couple of Republican legislators have volunteered to demonstrate how it's done. First up, please welcome .... Sen. Bill Rabon of Brunswick County. He's the co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

On Wednesday, his committee spent 45 minutes debating a bill on renewable energy. Right now, utilities such as Duke Energy are required to have 12.5 percent of their retail sales come from renewable sources by 2021. The bill would essentially end that program, reducing the requirement to 3 percent and eliminating it in 2023.

A similar bill was voted down 18-13 in a House committee last week. That was a mere speed bump, thanks to Rabon's ingenuity. Following the debate, Rabon called for a voice vote, despite protests from bill opponents who wanted a show of hands to be counted.

The voice vote was evenly split, those who were there say, so Rabon simply declared that the bill had passed. At least a half dozen Republicans voted with Democrats against the bill, and both sides say they would have won had Rabon counted the vote instead of just listening to it.

But voters will never know whether it had the votes or not, and that's the beauty of the Republicans' approach. For another shining example of how to do it, please welcome ... Sen. Tommy Tucker of Union County.

Tucker, co-chairman of the Senate State and Local Government Committee, hosted a debate last month over a bill that would let local governments pull their legal notices from newspapers and run them only on their government web site.

The committee was divided, and Tucker called for a voice vote. The margin was razor-thin one way or the other, so Tucker declared -- voila! -- the bill had passed. Whether it actually had the support of a majority of committee members, the public will never know, because Tucker refused to count the vote and declared the meeting adjourned.

Savvy, eh?

A Senate rule (unlike House rules) prohibits roll call votes in committee, which is a screwy rule. But the rules permit what's called "division," in which each committee member raises his or her hand as a "yea" or "nay" vote.

But that would mean actually counting the votes. And we all know how inconvenient that can be.

-- Taylor Batten

http://obsdailyviews.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-pass-bill-without-votes.html

Rethinking the Second Amendment in the wake of Newtown

bwheeler — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:28:29 -0400

We get way, way, way more Points of View submissions than we can possibly print. Here's one from Donald N. Wood, Ph.D., of Durham, on rethinking the Second Amendment.

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Much of the debate over gun safety legislation centers on the Second Amendment. And much of that discussion is based on some questionable assumptions. In examining this issue, three points need to be considered.

--Original Intent. The “originalist” interpretation of the Constitution holds that the original intent of the Founding Fathers must be discerned and followed. However, the wording of the Second Amendment is perhaps the most ambiguous of any in the Constitution: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. How are we to interpret the meaning of a “well-regulated Militia” in today’s context? Is the Militia to be
interpreted as a vigilante group of civilians ready to defend themselves against a rouge military takeover of the government by the Pentagon? Or does it refer to a well-armed civilian population ready to be conscripted into a Militia to defend our borders?

In either case, the original intent must be interpreted in light of the environment and technologies of the times. The arms available 225 years ago were muzzle-loaded muskets and flintlock pistols. James Madison and his colleagues could never begin to envision the semi-automatic weapons and hundred-round magazine clips available at gun shows today.

Even if we accept the first interpretation above (households must be armed to protect themselves against an insurgent military takeover), are we to expect that civilians today with their household munitions are to hold off a rouge U.S. military with its tanks, artillery, drones, collective airpower, and nuclear weapons?

--Inviolability of the Second Amendment. A second assertion is that the sacredness of the Constitution and all its Amendments shall not be violated. This is a document on a par with the Holy Bible. It cannot be altered. This, of course, flies in the face of Article V, which was purposefully included to make sure we had a mechanism for amending our founding document. The writers of the Constitution were fully aware that changing cultural patterns, technologies, and social issues would necessitate changes in the basic law of the land.

If we were not able to make changes in the Constitution, women would still be denied the right to vote, African-Americans would be counted as three-fifths of a person, and citizens would not be allowed to vote for their senators.

Also, the Constitution and its Amendments are constantly open to examination and re-
interpretation. Our First Amendment right to free speech is continually debated and restricted. Our Fourth Amendment guarantee that we shall not be subject to unreasonable searches and seizures is increasingly being eroded. And our Sixth Amendment right to a speedy and public trial is a laughing stock. No amendment, including the Second, is sacrosanct.

-- Infringement on Basic Rights. Another argument is that our basic rights shall never be curtailed. But our defined civil rights are continually being eroded by factors beyond our control—increasing population pressures, global entanglements, technological advances, economic convolutions, information proliferation, international threats, and so forth. The more complicated any system becomes, the more oversight and regulation it takes to keep the enterprise functioning. We cannot escape that basic truism.

We can never return to a halcyon ideal of smaller government and fewer restrictions.
Building codes prohibit you from constructing your house or factory out of straw and mud bricks. Traffic lights keep you from driving through an intersection whenever you choose. Zoning ordinances restrict you from putting your hog farm in the middle of the city. Food and drug regulations keep manufacturers from putting dangerous products in what you eat. These restrictions on our “basic rights” did not exist 225 years ago. But we accept them as part of living in an advanced complex, crowded, convoluted human society.

So it is with the “rights” ambiguously presented in the Second Amendment. Common sense dictates that we can no longer arm ourselves as if we were fighting for survival in a frontier scenario. Let us act civilized; it’s the only way we are going to survive in today’s increasingly complex culture. Let us revisit the Second Amendment with a sober recognition of today’s realities.

Donald N. Wood, Ph.D., of Durham is a professor emeritus of media studies who retired from California State University, Northridge, in 1998.

Why it's important to include people with disabilities in every aspect of life

bwheeler — Thu, 02 May 2013 18:22:16 -0400

A story about the horrible abuse of men with disabilities at a turkey plant in Iowa prompted Dr. Pamela J. Winton, a senior scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and the director of FPG’s National Professional Development Center on Inclusion (NPDCI) and CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge, to pen this piece.

On April 23rd, the N&O reported the shocking physical and verbal abuse of men with disabilities at a turkey processing plant in Davenport, Iowa “EEOC: Disabled Iowa Workers were Exploited, Abused”). No story in recent memory better reminds us of the value of inclusion, beginning at the earliest ages, as well as the importance of the pioneers who fight for it.

Inclusion is the right of all children, regardless of ability, to participate as full members of schools, communities, and society. For young children with disabilities, it means that instead of moving to isolated classrooms to receive specialized services, the services are brought to them in regular classrooms — the same ones that their typically developing peers attend.

When done poorly, like anything else, inclusion doesn’t work. Token efforts to bring children with disabilities into classrooms and community programs can result in little more than dumping children into environments without supports to prepare them to compete and achieve. When inclusion is successful, however, administrators, specialists, teachers and families have actively collaborated to meet the needs
of children with disabilities.

And here’s what we know about inclusion when we do it right: it benefits children with and without disabilities.

Research shows that when children with disabilities enter a well-prepared inclusive classroom, they learn from their typically developing peers and make developmental gains. Children with disabilities engage in more positive behaviors, and their parents report gains in social skills and acceptance by peers. Inclusion also prepares children with disabilities for adult life in the community.

Typically developing children profit from inclusion, too. In one study, parents reported that their children were more accepting of human differences, were more aware of other children’s needs, had less discomfort around people with disabilities, and had less prejudice about people who behaved differently. Inclusion also provides opportunities for friendships, and it can help maintain a typical family structure by keeping siblings with different abilities at the same school.

Every year, the National Early Childhood Inclusion Institute holds a three-day conference at UNC, sponsored by the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. When this year’s conference convenes on May 13, the keynote speaker won’t hold an advanced degree or have a single peer-reviewed publication to his credit. But 28-year-old Micah Fialka-Feldman is a longtime veteran of many battles for inclusion.

He’s also proof of the benefits of inclusion both to people with disabilities and to other students who learn to appreciate their fellow classmates without judgment or fear.

Fialka-Feldman’s first fight for inclusion came when he was in second grade. Back then, his elementary school directed him through a different entrance because of his intellectual disability.

“I knew I wanted to be included when I went in a separate door,” he said in a recent interview. “I told my parents I wanted to go in the same door as all my other friends.”

He won that battle, and opening doors would become the long-running theme of Fialka-Feldman’s life. He became a national speaker on disability pride and justice, and CNN named him one of its “Most Intriguing People.”

His most famous fight came against Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He was enrolled in a non-degree curriculum that offered him the opportunity to audit classes. Living off-campus meant a two-hour bus commute to campus for him, though, and Fialka-Feldman also wanted the complete college experience that comes with immersion in campus life.

When the university refused to admit him to campus housing, he once again was determined to open a door others had closed on him. After a two-year case, a U.S. District Court ruled that he could move into campus housing.

Fialka-Feldman’s website includes a video of him moving in. On it, he says that his case was “opening everyone’s mind to the full college experience being available to all students.” Indeed, perhaps what was most noteworthy was the overwhelming support he received from his fellow students throughout his fight.

Knowing him—and having learned to appreciate him—made a difference.

When we prepare all people to compete and achieve side by side—when we all grow up together and live together in environments designed to welcome people of all abilities—it becomes much more difficult to fear or misunderstand or exploit people with disabilities. Tragedies like the one in the Davenport plant become unimaginable, and all of us are better for that.

Nurses, legislators, guns, income tax, fracking, Dwane Powell and same-sex marriage

samnewkirk — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:44:12 -0400

Here are some letters that got overrun by other issues before they made it into the paper.

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Miracles among us

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Barry Saunders’ April 22 column about the anonymous nurse who was a superhero when a man went into cardiac arrest.
After hearing and reading so much negativity via the news, it is often easy to forget about the truly amazing things that occur in a day. It was such a pleasant surprise to read this column and share in the impact of a modern-day miracle. It made me realize that we will always have superheroes walking among us. No, they may not be in capes or fly, as Saunders said, but they are teachers, doctors, police officers, etc., who are saving lives every day.
I needed to be reminded of the power of a miracle.

Chelsea Gardner
Raleigh
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Leaders finally act

Surprise! House Speaker Thom Tillis was finally embarrassed enough by an action of his political cronies in the House to pull a resolution from consideration.
One might hope that Sen. Phil Berger and Art Pope might experience a similar moment of embarrassment with regard to some of their noxious notions and stances.
I yearn for the return of real, substantial leadership that we have had in the past with such leaders as Jim Holshouser, Jim Martin, Jim Hunt and Marc Blasnight. Perhaps that is too much to expect in this present political climate within our great state.

James R. Horton
Williamston
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Checks not enough

Months after the tragic Newtown shootings, Congress is considering a bill to modestly expand background checks (“GOP senators: Don’t block gun bill,” April 10). Meanwhile, Connecticut, has acted to expand the list of military-style weapons it has banned, limit ammunition magazines to 10 rounds and require background checks on all gun purchases.
We know that extensive background checks will help keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. But background checks would not have prevented Adam Lanza from committing the carnage in Newtown. Background checks are necessary but not sufficient.
It is difficult to understand how any intelligent person could consider that banning military-style weapons from the public or limiting the size of ammunition magazines is in some way a violation of the Second Amendment. It is equally difficult to understand how any intelligent person can believe that a modest extension of background checks is in any way addressing what needs to be done.
So, about those in Congress who refuse to take the brave action that is needed and has been taken by Connecticut, the question is: Are they gutless or stupid?

Bob Longo
Cary
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No ‘fair share’

Am I the only one who wonders why I paid a 36 percent federal income tax rate and President Obama paid 18.4 percent, when he had almost twice as much income as me? And why he continues to speak about the rich paying their “fair share”? Oh, yeah, he is trying to fix this situation ... for the second term! Glad we have him speaking out for the “little man.”

Robert Smith
Clayton
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Forgot fracking

Kudos to Rob Christensen for his April 21 column “For state GOP, small is passé.” The column neglected, however, two of the worst bills – SB 820 and 76 – from our GOP-dominated legislature, which is rushing to have fracking permitted by 2014.
When landscapes, water and air in Lee, Moore, Chatham and other counties have become industrialized and contaminated by fracking operations and fracking chemicals, we will see how attractive those and adjacent counties will be for prudent, long-term development after the boom-bust balloon of shale-gas mining bursts.

Dennis Welch
Cary
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Classic cartoon

Dwane Powell’s cartoon of the mastodon on April 14 was hilarious and right on target. In one drawing, he depicted all of the embarrassing foolishness and unconscionable depredations of the Republicans in control of our state government. A classic rendering of the dark piece of history we’re living through.

Don Wildman
Cary
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Emotional lawmaking

The media continues to whip public emotion into a frenzy and create a sense of urgency a la the “Same-sex marriage decision should not be left to states” and “Maximum mayhem must be limited” Point of View and Commentary March 30 articles.
The fallacy of their logic I leave for someone else to show, but I do take exception to their emotional appeals. Emotions are too hot and cold to be a just foundation for lawmaking. Emotions of a kind are often separated from their opposites by nothing more than a singular statement, belief, action or inaction. This is why legislation for new gun control and gay marriage are bad ideas and even worse laws if enacted.
Emotions by their very nature represent exclusion and inequality (e.g.: I love you, not him. She is intolerant of my beliefs and shouldn’t be allowed to speak out). I would think that the first people in line to object to emotion-based legislation would be those very vocal inclusionists and equal-rightists amongst us.
Laws shouldn’t be based upon emotional foundations but sound reasoning and solid facts. We shall all rue the day when lawmaking becomes an extension of the passions of the day!

Roy McCormick
Youngsville
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Same-sex marriage hurdle

The Civil Rights movement took years to show positive results – let’s get started down a similar path with gay marriage. The fight is nearing its first real hurdle in the Supreme Court. Outside, “antis” will flash slogans such as “it’s not natural” and “it will ruin the family” (and straights ignoring or abusing our wives and kids won’t?), while “pros” signal their desire to just have marital benefits equal to the rest of the population.
Leaving aside the federal Defense of Marriage Act and various state marriage laws for the moment, I have lived near and worked with many gay folks, some in relationships, some not. It’s fair to say they’re just like the rest of us. We all put on our pants the same way every day, our kids behave as kids will, some better than others, and we love our families.
Assuming equalization of marriage benefits won’t cause our economy to collapse, who’s hurting whom here? And why? Are the antis afraid of something beyond their world?
It shouldn’t be left unsaid that there are plenty of straight couples who are doing a lot worse in both their relationships and in child rearing, so who’s really ruining the family here?

Mike Strohmeyer
Raleigh

Doing the math on vouchers and Wake County private school tuition

bwheeler — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 15:41:48 -0400

Here's an interesting letter about private school costs in Wake County and school vouchers from Karl Gaskins in Raleigh. It's too long for print but worth a read.

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I googled private schools wake county. There were 83 results listed on one site. After I eliminated those that were nursery-kindergarten enterprises, I essayed to discover what tuitions were charged by the remainder. I was able to find, online, tuition information for about 43 schools, with a total enrollment of 16,473. I listed their tuition for the youngest elementary grade class they offered. I separated them into two groups: below $10,000 tuition (35 schools) and above $10,000 tuition (eight schools). Here is what I discovered:

Of the 35 under $10,000 schools, eight were less than $5,000, but not by much. They averaged $4,186. Enrollment was 1,289, or 7.8 percent of total.

The schools under $10,000 averaged $6,104. Not $4,900 as claimed by voucher supporters.

The schools over $10,000 averaged $15,998.

Tuition is not the only expense you encounter at a private school. Here are numbers published by one Christian school I examined:

Tuition $6,672.
New Student Application $100.
Resource Fee $480.
Capital Fee $360.
New Family Fee $500.

That’s over $8,000. For the first year.

Transportation to and from most schools is not provided.

There are unpaid efforts being made by teachers and others in many public schools in this state to package foodstuffs for some kids to take home for the weekend, because they would otherwise have little or nothing to eat until Monday when they get their breakfast at school. No one at home is making sure they do their homework. No one at home cares how they do at school.

What good is a $4,200 voucher to one of these kids? If the people they live with can’t or won’t keep them from going hungry, what is the likelihood they’ll come up with an average of $1,700 a year each, plus fees, to put them into private school and provide transportation for them to get there and back every day? There is not enough financial aid out there to offset this difference. What is the likelihood that these folks will start monitoring homework? What is the likelihood they’ll begin to encourage their kids to do well in school? Aren’t these the kids for whom a good education is most important, and most difficult to obtain, even when it’s “free”?

Many people further up the economic ladder would do everything they could to come up with the tuition difference, in hopes that their kids could get the most out of their education. But those kids are going to succeed in public school, because their parents are behind them and encouraging them and their teachers. These motivated parents and kids are critical to the success of public education. Their attitudes create and support the learning environment educators strive to provide.

I can’t think of any good reasons to reallocate resources from public schools to private schools. Characterizing this action as a business model in which competition is encouraged is cynical to the point of being venal. Encouraging the departure of motivated parents and students from public schools won’t make public schools more competitive. It will gut them. What football coach kicks his first string off the team and plays his third string because their less developed football knowledge, skills and motivation will enable them to perform better than the first string?

I am so old I attended segregated schools. Back then, private schools of any kind were few and far between, and were mostly either parochial schools or kindergartens. Do you remember when and why the big growth spurt in private schools across the South began? I certainly do. Lots of them called themselves Christian academies. Almost three-fourths of those schools I just looked at claim religious affiliation.

Vouchers aren’t for subsidizing better education for truly poor kids. They’re for subsidizing a second school system for the nice people, and for keeping those denizens of public schools who insist on being poor and ignorant exactly where they belong.

Dwane Powell: The school voucher train barreling down the track

bwheeler — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:03:25 -0400

Here's Dwane Powell's take on General Assembly doin's this week:

Two years free after 6,149 days in prison, Greg Taylor unsure of a direction

bwheeler — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:51:18 -0400

Greg Taylor spent 6,149 days in prison for the murder of Jacquetta Thomas in Southeast Raleigh. For 17 years he maintained his innocence, exhausting every appeal, turning down repeated chances to make up a story about a codefendant so that he could go free.

In 2005, Christine Mumma, executive director of the N.C. Center of Actual Innocence, reviewed his case and believed the state was holding an innocent man. Through Mumma's work, the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission voted unanimously in 2009 that Taylor's case warranted further review, and in 2010 he was the first person to be exonerated under the process.

North Carolina is the only state with an innocence commission.

Taylor, wearing stylish glasses and a pair of Levi's, spoke to honors law and justice students at Broughton High School in Raleigh today. He confessed to still feeling lost, unable to decide what he wants to do with his life and freedom. Here are my notes. They are not verbatim.

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For me to be here today, laws had to change, new evidence had to come into light, the N.C. Center for Actual Innocence and Christine Mumma. I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks for me being here today.

It was about this time 20 years ago in 1993 when I was convicted. It started in 1991, in September, I was living in Cary, married to the girl who sat behind me in homeroom in high school at Sanderson. I graduated from Sanderson in 1980, back in the stoned ages. I spent more time in the parking lot than I did in class, and I carried on through my 20s.

We were married. Had a daughter, 8 years old. I worked in telecommunications, lived in Cary, had a boat, two dogs, spent my weekends camping. That was our life at the time. I had that part of me that wen to my daughter’s PTA meeting on Sept. 24 and the other part that went out partying on Sept. 25. It was that night I got the truck stuck in the mud.

Johnny and I got the truck stuck in the mud and took off walking. I went back to the scene the next morning. Police were everywhere. I approached a police car and asked how long would it be before they were through. I had my truck stuck in the mud there. He said I should talk to a detective. One introduced himself. I asked him the same thing. How long would it be before they were through so I could get my vehicle. He said they were conducting an investigation, could he ask questions? I said I don’t really know anything but sure. I met him at the police station. He went through a list of questions. Who were you with? What did you do? Insinuating I wasn’t telling the truth, he said he had witnesses. I told him I’d do anything to help him. I gave him the keys to my vehicle. I told him there’d be nothing from the victim inside. I let him inside my house, gave him hairs, saliva, anything I could to prove I had no relation to his victim. I requested an attorney four times, but the interrogation kept going. Later that night, I was arrested and charged with first-degree murder along with my codefendant. All I had to go on was what I had seen in the movies. I asked for my one phone call. I called my wife. She flipped out. She had to become an expert like an attorney before my first appearance the next morning. I did what I could that night so hopefully this would be resolved in the next day or very soon. I held out this hope that physical evidence reports would hurry and get back and show we didn’t have any part of this crime. I wanted to hire an attorney so I wouldn’t get lost in the paperwork.

I met this attorney at the hearing, he looked familiar. It was Jim Blackburn, who prosecuted the Fatal Vision case. In that movie, Jim Blackburn was portrayed as a master of physical evidence. that’s what he used to convince a jury of McDonald’s guilt. I felt like someone capable of arguing physical evidence like that would be a benefit, so we retained Blackburn. I got out on bond three months later. About eight months after that, in August of 1992, I called Jim Blackburn. I was very concerned about his work. He said if I didn’t like it, I could get somebody else. I asked if I could have my money back, but he said no, so we kept on. In January of 1993, he surrendered his law license. He had embezzled my money and a whole lot of other people’s money. He pleaded guilty to several felonies. So that was representation for the first 15 months of my case.

I had a court date scheduled in February. When attorneys first get a case, they file a motion for discovery to find out what the prosecution has. This attorney filed a motion, looks over the evidence and says, Greg, it’s just like you said. There’s nothing there. He said a judge should throw it out, but if not, I don’t see a jury convicting. I know you want to prove you’re innocent, but that’s not your job. It’s the prosecution’s job to prove you’re guilty. He explained that the best thing for him to do for me was nothing.

What he was really saying is he didn’t want to present any evidence or any witnesses. And if he did that, he’d get the last closing argument, and that was all he needed to sow up an acquittal. I believed in the system. I believed an innocent man would not be convicted. I believed my attorney had an education and would make the best decision, but a voice in my head was saying, how can the best defense be no defense? I play sports. Nevertheless, I deferred to his judgment. So my trial consisted of the prosecution presenting its case in its entirety, the defense presenting no case, and closing arguments. The jury came back and said there wasn’t much to go on, but we think he’s guilty of something.

So on April 19, 1993, I was shackled in the Wake County Courthouse, put in a sheriff’s car and driven to Central Prison in downtown Raleigh over there.

Central Prison had been around since the 1800s or something. Me living in Raleigh all my life, I can remember driving by it like when I was 5 years old and Mom pointing up and saying, “That’s where bad people go.”

So the gates go up, the car goes in, I’m escorted into shipping and receiving, which is what they actually call it, strip-searched every which way you can be searched, given their clothes, given their number, and that was pretty much the end of me.

At that time, I kept thinking and still had this belief in the system that this couldn’t go on. Surely there’d be somebody, a judge, someone in a position of authority who had the intelligence to see a mistake had been made and do something about it.

In the beginning, I felt like it’d take a week, two weeks, maybe a month. The next day, my trial attorney came to see me and said it’d be 12 months or 15 months before the N.C. Supreme Court would overturn my sentence. I found out they’re not concerned with guilt or innocence. They’re concerned with technicalities. So my Supreme Court appeal was denied in 1994. When you file a motion for relief, it has to be for prosecutorial misconduct, inefficient counsel or new evidence. New evidence is new evidence that could not have been discovered before. My attorney had all this evidence he didn’t present, but that doesn’t count as new evidence.

It went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2001, all of my appeals had been denied. During all of that time, I missed a lot that went on in my life. My daughter was 9 years old when I went to prison. The first thing I missed was her 10th birthday, and that about killed me. Then I missed all these events, her 16th birthday, her high school graduation, her college graduation, her wedding day. She said nobody’s going to take the place of my daddy, and she walked down the aisle by herself.

The thing about prison is that it has prisoners in it, and prisoners are a different breed. There was a lot to put up with. I just tried to stay away from it all. I became withdrawn, isolated, alone the best I could in the midst of all those people. On the plus side, that kept me out of trouble. I went all those years and never had a single infraction, which is very unusual. On the minus side, it taught me to avoid people, to avoid crowds, stay to myself. I learned how to do one day at a time without any idea of a future. None of that was in my control. People ask me today, what do you want to do? I still freeze when I think about it. Still.

My last chance in court was 2003. I filed a motion for DNA testing. I said my family would pay for the testing. Please let us get it and get it tested. It was denied without a hearing. I exhausted all the chances I had in court. I filed an application to the N.C. Center of Actual Innocence, and in 2005, Christine Mumma became aware of my case, worked on it two years and realized there was nothing she could do. About that time, they passed the Innocence Inquiry Act. They took my case in 2007 and worked on it two years before they brought it before an eight-member panel. They look at the evidence, see whether it merits going in front of a judge. It was 8-0 unanimous vote, and I was granted a hearing in February 2010.

I was really fortunate to have so much support while I was in there. There were times I didn’t want a visit. If there’s a world I can’t be a part of, I don’t want to know about it. But Mama knows best, so she always came.

The Center on Actual Innocence and the N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission got the results. They tell you to be careful what you pray for. When I was first convicted, I wanted the world to know I was innocent. But there had to be some high-profile exonerations in North Carolina that led to the formation of the innocence commission. When I heard the judge say there was clear and convincing evidence I was innocent, that’s the first term that word has ever been used in court.

This is the first place I spoke when I got out. Your teacher said the students were impressed I could walk out of prison and a month later be standing in front of a class. It’s been a long process of adjusting. All that frustration and confusion went up and evaporated, but then there was a new sense of frustration and confusion in dealing with the world, the things I didn’t know. I had to learn to use a fork again, then cell phones, cameras with no film, other things you have to deal with. You walk out of prison after 20 years and you forget you’re 20 years older. I moved in with my daughter She’s like a stranger. There’s a void, because I don’t know how she got here.

I like to travel. I read close to 900 books while I was in prison, and some of the things I read about I’ve been fortunate enough to see. I went to Amsterdam, to the Anne Frank house. I read that book in prison, and for a millisecond I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to see that place? But I had to get rid of it, fast. I was in prison, and I was going to die there.

Then I ended up in Amsterdam, at the house. Just thinking about all the things that had to go right for me to end up there ...

I’ve been to England, seen some of the Beatles stuff. Hawaii. I have a friend who lives in Maui. Everyone should have a friend in Maui. All I have to do is go out there and crash on his couch.

When you first go to prison, you’re clawing the cinderblocks to get out. After 10 years or so, it’s just another day in the nuthouse. I had to go through changes in my mind to be able to adapt to that. I had to give up goals and thoughts of any kind of the future. I got to sit on a picnic table and watch the traffic go by, and tune that world out and the idea of being in it. You just have to live in the moment, and the little bit of what you can do in the moment, whether it’s reading a book or getting a workout in.

[When they offered him a deal to turn on his codefendant ... or make up a story, as he said ... he said] You’ve taken away everything else but I can still look at myself in the mirror, and you’re not going to take that away, too.

They dangled that carrot for years. The district attorney offered me time served [after they were waiting for the innocence commission to act.] It took me 10 seconds to turn it down. I spent all those years adamant in my innocence. At the Wake County jail that night, it was the worst meal of my life. And I thought, “I could have been home with my family.”

If I were in any other state, I’d still be in prison. North Carolina is the only one with a commission. The reforms I look at are the ones that prevent an innocent person from getting caught up in this to begin with, which is beneficial to law enforcement, too. It takes so much to change the culture of the system. If you go to work at IBM, the culture changes every day to stay on top, but if you go to work as a prosecutor, the system is ensconced in old ways. There should be rules about the preservation of evidence. If you get arrested for a crime, and you end up in prison, and you want DNA testing, and they end up destroying the evidence in your case. I know one person in prison who will never get out because the evidence has been destroyed.

 In my case, there was a jailhouse informant. I’m arrested, put in jail, don’t have a choice of where you sleep. This guy crawls up out of a hole and concocts a story in hopes of bettering his own situation. That’s a big part of why I was convicted. This guy had a history of forgery, armed robbery, crimes of deceit. Why is it a stretch for this guy to put his hand on a Bible and lie? I hope they institute jailhouse standards to go by instead of whoever tells them what they want to hear and put them on the stand.

My other thing is the SBI. When I was convicted, they said there was a spot of blood on the fender of my truck.That always baffled me all those years. Come to find out in 2010, they found the actual SBI notes where this person tested it twice for the presence of blood and didn’t find it. Confirmatory tests, they find out whether it is what they say it is. The confirmatory test was negative. They never told anybody. All they did was report the presumptive test. There has been reform in the crime lab. I hope they’ll continue. At least now you actually have to be a scientist to work there.

If you spend a day in prison, you realize the system gets it right an awful lot. There were a lot of people I thought I’m sure glad you’re in here and not out there with my wife and daughter. If they get it right 99 percent of the time, that still leaves 1 percent. I try to look at it from a human perspective. If you make mistakes, own up to them and correct them. It’s a lot better than sweeping it under the rug, as they did with my stuff.

The compensation part, what the state allows is $50,000 a year for up to 15 years, or $750,000. I gave them two years free. Some say that’s a lot of money. Some say it’s a drop in the bucket. I did the math. It’s $5 an hour. Would you spent the rest of your life in prison for $5 an hour?

The next day after I was released, Raleigh had its oldest cold case, and I was the prime suspect again. I asked for DNA testing in 2003 and was denied. But then they wanted my clothes back and stuffed animal, they wanted to test it. I wasn’t going to run from it. If I don’t allow this DNA testing, no telling how it would look. I said OK to the DNA testing, then I had to write them a month later begging them to go ahead and do it. It came back negative on my daughter’s birthday in May 2010. The day those results came back was the day the governor granted me a pardon. They tested my clothes for skin cells and found not one transfer. Every time they pointed a finger at me, they just exonerated me one more time.

Durham native and marathon runner in awe of outpouring after Boston bombs

bwheeler — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 18:15:52 -0400

Ezra Dunkle-Polier, a Durham native and a senior at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., was one of the runners of the Boston Marathon. He sent us thoughts on the day.

By Ezra Dunkle-Polier

Words cannot express the heartache that the Boston community feels for the innocent victims of the terrible explosions at the end of the 117th running of the Boston Marathon last Monday.

As a participant, though I will never forget the smell of the gunpowder moving down Beacon Street or the disappointment of coming within half of a mile from the finish, what I remember most is the support of my fellow runners, teammates and Bostonians.

All of the runners came together as the news of the explosions at the finish spread down Boylston Street. I can vividly remember their hugs and kind words as all of us waited on the status of our loved ones at the finish. Some of us decided the only thing to do was to keep going, keep trying to reach the goal that we had trained so many months for.

Eventually, though, it was clear that the race was over. When you have no physical reserves left, emotions can run rampant. The only thing I can think about is the deafening silence throughout the group of disappointed and saddened runners. With it came a silent understanding, though, both of the gravity of the situation and of our accomplishments.

Needless to say, the Tufts Marathon Team came together in an indescribably powerful way. While we had formed unbreakable bonds at our weekly training runs and interval sessions, the tragedy brought us even closer together. In an expression of solidarity as a team and of defiance against fear, our coach decided not to cancel our planned team reception.

Even though it did not have its anticipated jovial atmosphere, the time for runners, volunteers and coaches to connect and share stories was an invaluable chance to continue the healing process. The Tufts University community echoed this sentiment. Never before have I experienced complete strangers offering their unconditional condolences or a muted “congratulations.” At a time when being surrounded by thousands of college students can make someone feel confined an alone, I have never felt more connected to a space and a community.

I generally expected to be comforted by other runners and my teammates, but never imagined the wonderful support of Bostonians and people all over the country. Everywhere I looked after the race, I saw random strangers giving runners jackets, blankets, or cell phones to contact their family members. The Boston Police Department acted with the utmost professionalism and tact in the face of heart-wrenching terror, taking careful time to explain the situation to runners and spectators.

One man, whose name I will never know, walked countless blocks out of his way just to point me in the direction of my family. As one student voiced in an interfaith vigil on the Tufts campus Monday night, the explosions Monday afternoon sought to tear us apart, but instead we are all Bostonians now.

The hardest aspect of that day for me to reconcile was whether I truly finished the race. All of my friends, family and supporters keep saying that it was not my fault, that the police forced the race diversion. Though I am confident I would have reached 26.2 had the explosions not occurred, no amount of praise can replace the disappointment. That being said, not being allowed to finish this year only adds to my motivation to return next year and celebrate in Copley Square.

Living in the 9/11 generation, we are sadly accustomed to attacks like this, though still rarely on American soil. In times of trauma, crisis, confusion and instability, however, we show our resilience and defiance over forces who seek to throw us off balance. We come together instead of breaking apart. We keep on running. The only way to not let whoever committed this horrific act win is to keep on living incredible lives, one foot in front of the other.

State religion, taxes, schools, legislature, nurses and marijuana

samnewkirk — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:32:35 -0400

Here's a batch of letters that got overrun by other issues before we could get them in.

Taxes provide good things

Not unexpectedly, tax season is just about upon us again. While complaining about taxes is just about as American as apple pie, too much complaining is unbecoming to us all. For tax revenue turns into some of my favorite things, such as traffic lights, libraries, EMS, air traffic control, filling of pot holes, public beach access points, bridges and parkland to name just a few.

Grumble about paying taxes but keep a lid on it as our society would be a mess without them.

Deborah Brogden
Raleigh
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Hiring from within works too

There are several school systems in our area that are either looking for a new superintendent, such as Wake County, or have just hired a replacement, such as Lee County.

A common practice when looking to hire a new leader is to open up a national search with a separate committee in charge of interviewing candidates, which is the approach Wake County schools took on this matter. This approach costs taxpayers an exorbitant amount of money that could easily be avoided by hiring from within.

Recently Lee County schools hired A longtime associate administrator for Lee County schools, the second-highest ranking school official in the county, Dr. Andy Bryan to be the next superintendent for the county’s school system. I find this a commendable choice, due to the amount of time and money saved in this process. Not only does it save time and money, but the person is already familiar with the system and can implement their changes quickly.

All surrounding school systems should take a page out of Lee County’s playbook and hire from within.

Zachary Francis
Sanford
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Burr’s identity revealed

By signing a letter pledging to filibuster any legislation on gun control, Sen. Richard Burr has taken off his conservative disguise and shown his true colors as a tea party fundamentalist.

The current Senate gun control legislation is not an attack on the Second Amendment, and like any other legislation with the potential to enhance the safety and sanctity of the American people, it deserves to be brought to the floor for a vote. But rather than allow open debate and a vote on the subject, Burr and the other obstructionists of the tea party would rather grandstand and politicize the issue for their own personal gain.

These kind of childish antics do not surprise me when they come from the tea party Republicans we have elected to Congress, but North Carolina should be demanding more than self-serving politics from our Senators. It’s time Burr started representing all of North Carolina's citizens and not just his own personal political ambitions and that of the Republican party.

David Hurley
Holly Springs
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Bill would change CRNA policy

In response to the March 26 letter to the editor “CRNA supervision”: Current law in North Carolina requires that a nurse work in accordance with the N.C. Nurse Practice Act. The N.C. Nurse Practice Act defines the activities that require physician supervision of a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Currently, there is no binding statutory or judicial authority in N.C. requiring that CRNAs be supervised by a physician in order to deliver nurse anesthesia care.

Accordingly, House Bill 181 proposes a significant policy decision favoring supervision over collaboration.

It is important to note that hospitals are not the only facilities that would be affected by HB 181. CRNAs practicing outside of a hospital setting work under institutional policy. Many settings in North Carolina allow for CRNAs to work without physician supervision but in direct collaboration with a surgeon, other physician specialists, dentists or podiatrists. Medicare rules do not apply to many of these settings.

Wendy Collins CRNA, MSN
President, North Carolina Association of Nurse Anesthetists
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Bill destined to fail

A new bright idea of our GOP legislature was to nullify the First Amendment, declaring it to apply only at the federal level, thus freeing North Carolina to establish whatever religion if it wanted. It is a settled matter of constitutional law that restrictions on Congress in the Bill of Rights apply also to state and local governments by virtue of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

But this did not deter the bill’s sponsors. One wonders where (or if) they studied law. If the bill became law, it would quickly be found unconstitutional upon challenge. After all, we fought a Civil War over the question of the right of states to go their own ways. But, unlike the case of DOMA where the Obama administration rightly decided not to waste taxpayer money defending something they realized is unconstitutional, the taxpayers of our state might pay out a bundle in legal fees to defend the idiocy of the legislature. As in the DOMA case, Republicans who support it should be required to pay for its legal defense.

Lawrence Evans
Durham
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Strength in numbers

Guards at schools might reduce mass shootings there but what about daycare centers, shopping malls, restaurants and offices?

Drug control laws haven’t eliminated drug use. Gun control laws won’t eliminate shootings. They haven’t even reduced them. We might reduce shootings if gun owners secured their weapons, but with over 100 million guns, you can’t eliminate them.

Scott Hertenstein
Cary
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Pot soothes ailing father

Over the course of the past five years, I have seen my father, an Iraqi war veteran, lunge and fall though pharmaceutical hula-hoops at the hands of professional persuasion and prescription.

After years of trial and error, physicians evaluated my father and nonetheless, treated him with levels of narcotics that would kill a human with ease upon mixing the wrong medicine or failure to continue medicating at high dosages.

Marijuana, nature’s pharmaceutical, has worked miracles for my father. Symptoms, such as chronic back pain, severe anxiety and detrimental Posttraumatic Stress Disorder dissipate into near inexistence with use of the flower for him. Out of the dozens of daily treatments my father received through governmental and medicinal administration; none have proven to work in eliminating his symptoms in such a harmless and noninvasive way.

It is important to take a step back as individuals and citizens of our community and understand the importance and benefits of those in need for medical marijuana. As Hippocrates said, “Let food be thy medicine.” Natural treatment without any additional aid from chemicals or pharmaceuticals noted the difference between life and death for my father.

Nathaniel Lamonds
Raleigh
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Article was a joke

Daniel Schuman’s article (“Congress needs a big, fat pay raise” April 3) has to be a joke.

While teachers are being put on pay freezes and the possibility of no tenure, these stalwarts (supposedly representing the public) have done nothing but act like 5 year olds on a sandlot. The bickering, taking sides for spite, granting themselves holidays and pay raises while the public they are supposed to serve go hungry, sick, and forgotten, increases all around. Why? Because these stalwarts of justice can’t make good fiscal and social decisions in a timely manner.

I thought raises were given for a job well done!

Shelley Leder
Goldsboro
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Equality in taxation

Income tax is never a pleasant topic of conversation, but it is unfair to eliminate it or allow the rich to pay only a minimal amount in comparison to the rest of the state’s population. No one wants to pay taxes, and it doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor. Think about “no income tax” the next time your house is on fire and you call the local fire department, a bridge to your favorite vacation spot needs repairs after weather damage or police are needed to protect the public related to crowd control at an event you are attending.

Will a 5 percent increase in sales tax really cover all the services we have come to expect? Eliminating income tax altogether or allowing the rich a tax break is certainly not the answer and neither is placing a higher percentage of the burden for the above services on the poor by raising the sales tax on items like food and other essential services.

Margie Maddox
Cary
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No voice allowed

“Everyone who has wanted to be heard has been heard,” said Sen. Jerry Tillman, as he sent Capital Police to escort my two friends and me under threat of arrest from the premises of the legislative complex recently

We were standing silently in the back of the room after having our requests to address the education committee denied. Were we scary – two of us who could be grandmothers, and one younger mother with her two children? Threatening violence or insurrection? No. We were three women standing in the back of the room, wanting our two minutes of “public comment.”

Neither “protesting” nor being arrested were on our to-do list but addressing our senators about an important bill was. While our senators learned nothing of our concerns about education bills, we learned a powerful lesson: Much of this legislation points to silencing the public, whether through voting restrictions, reneging on past agreements or denying local communities the right to govern themselves – turning our beloved North Carolina into a state we don’t even recognize.

Lettice Rhodes
Raleigh
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Return to the South

I fervently pray the North Carolina Democratic party strengthens itself and recruits strong candidates for the 2014 General Assembly elections. I also ask God to ensure these candidates are well financed to counter the deep pockets of Art Pope, the Koch brothers and their supporters.

The “Defense of Religion Act” for me is the last straw in the Republican morality crusade. With all the hardships our General Assembly is bringing to those less fortunate, I am beginning to wonder whether I live in progressive Piedmont North Carolina in the 21st century or the South during the Civil War.

Mark G. Rodin
Durham
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Taliban or bust

I see where a number of the members of the state House of Representatives introduced a failed bill (House Bill 494) that asserted that North Carolina can establish a state religion, in defiance to the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

This was an extremely dangerous and cynical act. If enacted, it would say that the states can ignore most anything in the Constitution they decide they don’t like. Cruel and unusual punishment? Why not! Freedom of the press? Not for us! So, why even attempt to introduce such an ill-considered law?

Surely, the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on using the government to promote religion in no way threatens Christianity or anyone’s ability to practice it. The only people threatened by this are a few people who would either use the state to force their religion on other people or other people who would stir up religious discord to consolidate their own political power.

The Taliban would be proud.

Eric Thomas
Durham

Dwane Powell: The fun of crowded NC classrooms

bwheeler — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:51:56 -0400

The N&O’s former cartoonist just couldn’t sit out this legislative session, not with all the things begging to be drawn. He’ll be offering his view every Sunday in The N&O during the session. Here’s this week’s.